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From: mas@teddy.UUCP (Mark A. Swanson)
Newsgroups: net.arch
Subject: IBM claim that 370 has "64 bit architecture"
Message-ID: <408@teddy.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 22-Mar-85 12:48:26 EST
Article-I.D.: teddy.408
Posted: Fri Mar 22 12:48:26 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 28-Mar-85 02:47:55 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: GenRad, Inc., Concord, Mass.
Lines: 17

IBM bought an add for the new PC AT/370 product.  Apparently this is an IBM
PC AT with the 370 CPU addin board set installed.  It appears on page 28 of
the April 1985 issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.

The ad copy refers to the product as providing ~ "the power of the 64 bit
architecture of the System 370."

This strikes me as rather outrageous hype.  True, some of the IBM mainframe
implementations of the 370 architecture fetch 64 bits of data at a time (if
not more.)   But how the heck can one reasonably describe the 370 architecture
(which I consider to be the programmer's model) to be a "64 bit" one?

(Preferably, the argument should apply to the PC AT with its (probably) 16 bit
data bus and not apply to the "32 bit" VAX 11/780.)

		Mark Swanson
		...decvax!genrad!panda!mas